A Glass of Aussie Gold
Sometimes, when I worked on Wall Street, I didn’t want to wake up. And if I had to, I didn’t want to go to work. Wine at Five was opened in March 2006 and I don’t think there has been a morning since then when I haven’t wanted to come to work – that’s a monumental difference.
This morning, for instance, I listened to the Muppet in the High House saying that the High House was horrible and he didn’t want to live there any longer (boo-hoo) – and there are a lot of people who would concur, but for a very different reason. I thought to myself, do I want to get up? Do I want to listen to this rubbish? Do I want to go to work where 40% of my wages are going to feed this Muppet in the High House (probably less since I believe he only eats meatloaf)? Then I remembered that my Aussie friend was going to bring us some Aussie wines at 10 and I never looked back! That’s the beauty of doing what I’m doing now. Licensed alcoholic – love it.
So Gordan brought over a bevy of delicious wines and since I haven’t put together a ‘go-box’ for a while, I thought I would do so now based on the delicious wines that we began tasting at 10.00 this morning. And here we go:
Alpha Crucis Fiano 2016. The grape is an ancient Italian varietal from Campania, but grown in McLaren Vale in southern Australia. It has the subtle flavors of white stone fruit, jasmine and slatey stones. A lovely rendition of a Mediterranean wine. This has power and boldness yet remains very light and nimble. Delicate almost! $24
David Franz Sémillon 2012. Wow. The benchmark for sémillon must be Chateau Haut Brion. That wine is on my list of greatest wines ever tasted. But few, if any sémillon wines come close to it. I’m not saying that this wine is a contender, but in its own place it was delicious. Powerful minerality, saltiness, sourness, sweetness. All coming at you from different angles. Mouth is overloaded with flavors. Very special. Very, very good. Don’t be put off by the age; David releases this Grave styled wine after 5 years of rest. It takes time to achieve the complexity of flavors that he wants from the wine and of the 2012 vintage he stated that it will come to fruition 5 years after bottling. How right he was. $29
Paxton Graciano 2016. Dave Paxton is one of Australia’s unsung heroes of the wine world. He’s in his 30th year of wine-making and I guess when you have 30 vintages under your belt you know a thing or two. Who, for instance, would think to graft Graciano vines onto 85 year chardonnay root stock? Graciano is an old varietal from the Rioja region of Spain. The grafting onto chardonnay makes this wine much lighter than its Spanish cousin. Also, livelier, rounder, younger feeling. With a slight chill on the wine this is a hard to beat BBQ wine. $22
Tim Smith Bugalugs Shiraz 2016. If they had been making this wine when Australia decided to chase the Parker scores making massive dark chocolate mousse styled wines, they would never have entered the wine recession that they did for 10+ years. Even though this wine comes in at 14.2% alcohol you don’t feel it. Lovely fruit, lovely cornucopia of baking spices and lovely, juicy mouthfeel. Another red that would welcome a slight chill – just to bring out a touch more acidity. But even without it’s a beautiful wine. $25
Single box – 1 of each (4btls): $100.00
Double box – 2 of each (8btls): $170.00
Triple Play – 3 of each (12btls): $240.00
What a great way to spend a Summer’s afternoon – invite a bunch of friends, sit around, talk about the Muppet and toast the years to come with a bottle or two of Aussie gold. Special.
Since we only tasted the wines this morning wines will be delivered here Friday. Let me know what you want and we’ll have them ready for the weekend.
All the best